1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photographic image service. Particularly, the present invention relates to a photographic image service system that provides photographic images of local area events to users.
2. Description of the Related Art
Accompanying the spread of the Internet, it has become a widespread practice to place orders online. These orders include accessing a server on the Internet using a personal computer (hereinafter, referred to as “PC”) while at home to shop, as well as performing bank transactions. In addition, portable terminals such as cellular telephones have also become rapidly widespread. It is an everyday occurrence to access servers on the Internet by using the portable terminals in the same manner as a PC. Further, with the recent introduction of Internet Television, systems for providing various services utilizing a specific channel of the television are also being realized.
Among these systems, there are those that provide services related to photographic images. For example, known systems include those that digitize photographic images obtained by a user then store the digitized image data in an image server; provide the digitized image data to the user, recorded on a recording medium such as a CD-R; and enable users to order prints of photographic images stored in the image server, via a network. There are known systems in which a user stores their own image data on a server on a network, and is enabled to place printing orders on the stored image data. For example, in the photographic image service system disclosed in U.S. Patent Laid-Open No. 20020093680, a user transmits their own image data to a server provided by a service provider, via a network such as the Internet. The server stores the image data transmitted thereto from the user, and also provides a printing order reception service wherein printing orders are received for the image data which are stored therein. In these systems, the contents of the printing order received by the server (the image or images to be printed, the print size, etc.) are transmitted to a laboratory that actually performs the printing. Note that there are cases in which the same service provider provides both the laboratory that actually performs printing and the server that stores and receives printing orders for image data, and cases in which the laboratory and the server are provided by different service providers.
Meanwhile, there are cases in which it is difficult for a user to obtain photographs for him or herself, due to geographical or time constraints. In response to these situations, systems exist in which photographic images, for example, of World Cup Soccer games, are exhibited on the Internet. Users order desired photographic images in the form of prints, or as data recorded in a recording medium, from among those exhibited on the Internet. By utilizing such systems, users are enabled to obtain photographic images which would be difficult to obtain by themselves. In addition, photographic images provided in these systems are photographed by professional photographers. Therefore, users are able to obtain photographic images of a higher quality than those that they would be able to photograph themselves.
However, systems for providing professionally photographed, high quality photographic images of events to users have as their targets large scale events of national to international importance. In the case of small scale events of importance only to a limited geographic area, such as a school athletic event or a town festival, photography is generally performed by those involved with the participants (parents, groups of friends, etc.). In this case, not only is securing photography locations troublesome, but as the photography is performed by amateurs, it is difficult to obtain high quality photographic images. Therefore, organizers of an event, for example, may commission a local photo studio to perform photography at the event. The photo studio prints out the photographic images for viewing by the participants, who order additional prints for photographic images that they desire. In this method, there is a problem that only participants in the event can obtain photographic images thereof. Only the photo studio which has been commissioned can perform photography and printing. Therefore, there is no competition among photo studios, and there is a problem that the users have limited freedom of choice regarding the photo studio.
In the case that a user desires photographs of their grandchild's elementary school athletic event, and the grandchild lives far away, the user must rely on photographs sent to them from their children, which is inconvenient. Photographs of small scale events, which are of importance only to a limited community such as that described above, are sometimes exhibited on personal web sites. However, these web sites are difficult to search for, and there is no guarantee regarding the quality of the photographic images. A method wherein the local photo studio exhibits the photographic images on the Internet to receive orders therethrough is unrealistic, because the burden on the photo studio is great from the viewpoint of costs in system construction and maintenance.